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Principal John Pavlicek's future at Harrison K-8 School uncertain as he withdraws resignation letter

Harrison staff rallies around Pavlicek

By Sara Knuth

The Daily Record

Posted:
04/21/2017 09:59:24 PM MDT

John Pavlicek

Coming Monday

More reaction from Friday's meeting will be included in a preview of Monday's Cañon City School Board meeting.

During the course of 24 hours, the principal of Harrison K-8 School submitted and then withdrew a resignation letter, citing concerns about getting pressured into leaving his job.

"As I processed more, and learned more information, I decided to withdraw my resignation," Principal John Pavlicek said. "It wasn't a willing resignation from the first place. I thought better against it."

The Cañon City School Board, which planned to accept his resignation letter Friday at a special meeting, decided to table the issue until its regular meeting Monday.

Cañon City School District Superintendent George Welsh emphasized that he did not think Pavlicek was pressured to resign and said he recommended that the school board renew his contract.

However, Welsh said, he did not think the school board would vote to renew Pavlicek's contract, which is something he said he told Pavlicek.

"I don't want anyone to believe in any way that there was any pressure," Welsh said at an informal meeting Friday afternoon with Harrison K-8 staff members. "I indicated to him that I'm not sure that his contract would be approved, and so, I wanted him to think about what that would look like this coming Monday."

But Pavlicek said after some thinking, he started to feel differently.

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"I prayed about it, I've thought about it, I've received counsel from all over the state and it doesn't feel right," he said. "I'm not going down like that. I'm not going to be forced to do something I don't believe in ... I believe in the work that we've done, I believe in the place we're at right now and I believe what works."

For the majority of Harrison K-8's educators, the potential resignation came as a surprise. Many of them said at Friday's informal meeting they think the resignation was involuntary.

But once they found out, several of them headed to the school district's administration office to attend the special meeting, which was hosted at noon when the school was hosting a celebration for completion of state testing.

Several educators said they were not aware of the special meeting until Friday morning. The Daily Record was not notified directly about the meeting, but an agenda was posted on the district's website and on the front entrance of the district's administration building.

Jody Madsen, a middle school special education teacher, said at the special meeting that the majority of Harrison's educators didn't understand why Pavlicek was resigning.

"This is my second principal here, and I feel that finally, our building is headed in a positive direction," she said.

At the informal meeting, several teachers of all experience levels said they felt the same.

"If John leaves, this community will be crushed," said Brian Sprenger, the school's assistant principal. "If you're willing to listen, we can do what's best for these kids."

Days earlier, Pavlicek said he told staff members at a professional development meeting that he planned to stay in the district.

That was something that Madsen said stuck with members of the staff.

"He told us at a professional development meeting only a couple days before this happened that he was here as long as the district would have him," she said.

Madsen said teachers requested that board members attend the meeting at their school after finding out that Pavlicek was resigning.

"We're here solution-seeking to get questions answered, not to point fingers," she said. "We don't understand. It's to seek understanding."

When Pavlicek first started at Harrison in August 2015, she said, "we had dissention among the ranks, we had fractured groups, we weren't a cohesive team."

Now, she said, "I feel that we really have become that cohesive team and that we're headed in the right direction. And so, I came here hoping to get answers myself because we don't understand why."

This sentiment was echoed by nearly every teacher present at the informal meeting.

Harrison, which serves a population of 745 kindergarten through eighth-grade students, was rated by the Colorado Department of Education in October as an improvement school, which is the second-highest ranking in the state's accountability system known as the Performance Framework.

Along with Cañon City High School, Harrison was one of two non-online schools in the district not to be rated as a performance school, which is the state's top ranking.

A few educators at the special meeting expressed concern about speaking on the record for fear of retaliation.

But after Friday's special meeting, Board President Larry Oddo emphasized that he plans to hear the concerns of educators at Harrison.

"He (Pavlicek) asked us to convene today so that he could make that announcement at the building later today," Oddo said during the meeting. "This morning, he sent us a notification that he rescinded that resignation."

Later Friday afternoon, all but one member of the board attended the meeting at Harrison K-8 with staff members, administrators and Pavlicek. Board assistant secretary and treasurer Kristyn Econome, who was not present at either meeting, was out of town. But she approved the special meeting, which requires unanimous approval by the board's five members.

When it comes to the issue of a forced removal, Welsh said, "I can unequivocally say no, that's not the case."

He added that toward the end of the school year, after evaluations, superintendents typically make recommendations to the school board about contract renewals for administrators.

During the special meeting, Oddo said that legally, the board does not have to accept Pavlicek's decision to take back his resignation but wanted to table the issue until Monday.

"From a practical standpoint and from the passion we're experiencing in this room right now, it probably makes sense to table our decision about his resignation," Oddo said. "We received several phone calls and emails requesting our presence at their building later today."

The district's regular school board meeting will be hosted 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Central Administration Office, 101 N. 14th St.

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